Daycare closed after chair-throwing claim

ESCONDIDO  State authorities have shut down an Escondido child care center because the owner allegedly injured a 6-year-old girl last month by throwing a metal chair at her.

The California Department of Social Services closed the Wahaha Child Care Center on Thursday and revoked the owner’s license. The state agency also wants to ban her for life from running any similar businesses.

In a report obtained by UT-San Diego, state officials said their investigation determined that Hu hit the girl in the face with a metal chair on Aug. 16 and tried to keep the incident a secret by bribing the girl with a bag of lollipops.

The girl suffered a bruised cheek, her mother, Keiana Shannon, said Tuesday.

“My daughter is traumatized,” said Shannon, a 29-year-old mother of five. “The lady who did this doesn’t need to be around children at all ever again.”

Hu also allegedly used another child as a human shield when Shannon confronted her about the chair incident later the same day, state investigators said.

“I finally had to walk away because my temper was at an all-time high,” Shannon said. “She never apologized at all.”

Hu couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.

State officials took a particularly aggressive approach to this case, said Michael Weston, a spokesman for state social services.

Some child care centers are allowed to remain open while proposed discipline is appealed, but Hu wasn’t given that opportunity, he said. In addition, the state is seeking to ban her for the rest of her life from working with child care or foster care agencies.

Shannon praised the state’s approach.

“She’s more interested in making money than taking care of kids,” Shannon said of Hu.

She said the alleged lollipop bribe nearly worked on her daughter, but that her 10-year-old son witnessed the chair incident and pressured the little girl to tell her mother.

Shannon said she created a “no secrets” rule with her daughter after the incident. She also expressed optimism her daughter would bounce back quickly.

“She’s not the typical girly-girl — she’s tough,” Shannon said.

Shannon first reported the chair incident to Escondido police on Aug. 16, the day it happened, Lt. Griffin said.

Police then told officials with the county’s Child Welfare Services division, who notified state officials in Sacramento, Griffin said.

“There are instances where you could throw a chair and it wouldn’t be criminal,” he said.

State records show that the Wahaha Child Care Center had been licensed since December 2011, Weston said. There’s no record of Hu having any child care licenses in California before then, he said.

The center — at 1851 E. Washington Avenue — was licensed to serve as many as 69 children, but typically served about 50 children per day. Including Hu, the center had roughly a half dozen licensed child care providers.